Holding tank care. While this is not the most exciting or pleasant topic, for those of us on the road being able to deal with all the crap is important. People who do quite a bit of RV’ing have figured out how to deal with all kinds of crap, but I thought I’d share any way.
We have a 100 gallon fresh water tank, 60 gallon gray water tank, and a 40 gallon sewage tank. When we are at a park that offers full hook-ups (water, sewer and electric) these facts are a non-issue. However, state and national park campgrounds generally offer just water and electric hook-ups. Boondocking or dry camping offers no hook-ups at all.
Managing our water and all our other crap during extended stays in these situations took some trial and error. (Saran Wrap is great at holding the failed flush attempt in the toilet while traveling to the dump station. Just saying) With careful management we fount that we can go about 14 days before we have to dump our tanks and take-on fresh water.
The “black tank” or “sewage tank” is one which we are most attentive. Whether we are on full hook-ups or dry camping the valve on the black tank remains closed until the tank is at least 3/4 full. Most people make the mistake of trying to be conservative with how much crap they put down toilet. Water, water, water. I can’t stress that point enough. The more water the less likely the RV is going to get “constipated” and need the RV Proctologist to come an deal with all your crap. (No medical insurance on an RV either!!)
I have a basin in the kitchen sink for doing our dishes. That water then gets dumped down the toilet.
When we boondock, I keep a bucket handy in the shower and catch the cold water while waiting for the hot water. That bucket of water goes down the toilet. All this water keeps the “Cone of Death”, John’s term for a big pile of crap, from forming. This is what gets stinky.
Choose your toilet paper carefully. Anything that is “septic safe” is fine for your holding tank, though I tend to stay away from the ultra soft, thick Charmin/Cottonelle type. We use Quilted Northern to cleanup our crap. You do NOT need to buy RV specific toilet paper which is MEGA expensive.
A good digester / odor controller is helpful. Some RV’ers use plain old Rid-X. We have tried several types and prefer Pure Power Blue. It is a bit more expensive than most, about $25 per gallon, but it works great for our crap, especially in warmer weather. We purchase it in its liquid form because when boondocking I can pour it down the gray tank too. Check out the RV Doctor video about the product.
So, how do we know when it is time to dump and get rid of all of our crap? Those little lights that indicate how full our tanks are? Yeah they almost NEVER work on the black tank. This takes experience to accurately know when it is time to get rid of some crap. For us we go by sound and smell as well as monitoring our fresh water and gray tanks; these lights tend to be accurate.
John bought a clear connector for our dumping hose so we can see the crap we are getting rid of. Gross I know, but necessary.
Hook-up the dump station’s flushing hose and Flush, Flush, Flush the black tank. Close the valve, fill the black tank and Flush, Flush, Flush. Over and over until the water is fairly clear and no more crappy stuff is coming out. This care helps to avoid the tank from getting stinky.
For additional cleaning, we add some ice cubes, about 5-10 pounds and some water in the tank while traveling. This helps break-up any solids on the bottom that couldn’t be flushed.
So far so good. No proctologist for our girl.
